Adieu

We've still got stories to post, don't worry, but as with the rest of the summer, they'll be posted later (probably after we get back to Gainesville). We are back in Gabs tonight. We finished up the last game drive on Saturday morning, then we camped out in the middle of the park with buffalos and elephants and warthogs visiting us at one time or another. Since then, we've logged over 1,000 km on the poor little car that we've been driving all summer. We camped last night at Khama Rhino Sanctuary (only saw 1 rhino, but we saw springbok and gemsbok which I'd wanted to see anyways). It was cold, but fun. Now we're back at the same little B&B we stayed at before. We got here around 4, unloaded our car which was filled to the gills, then took the car to get a car wash and detailed. It took about 2 hours, but I didn't recognise it when they were done! All summer, its had a grey color, but lo and behold, its actually a deep blue! The guys at the car wash just shook their heads and laughed when we pulled up. But, 2 hours of power washing, lots of soap and some elbow grease made it shine! Then, we cooked dinner in the parking lot of the B&B (yes, we are that classy, but we had the food and all the gear to do it, so why not?).
Because we were in the middle of nowhere when the rest of the world saw Harry Potter, we watched it tonight. I don't think I've cried that much in a movie in a long time. I thought they did an excellent job with the movie. Now, we just have to finish packing up all the gear (camping gear etc) and then our stuff. And along the way I plan to take about 5 showers because I'm convinced that's how many it'll take to feel clean again. The plan for the next couple days is as follows:
PACK! AH!
Fly the 30 minutes from Gabs to Joburg. Then wait. For NINE hours!!! Boo.
Fly to Amsterdam (Sorry, Val we're only going to be there for 2 hours, otherwise I'd try to come see you!)
Fly to Washington DC (Sleep to Amsterdam, watch movies to DC)
Drive to Delaware to hang out with Lauren and Joel! YAY!
Wedding preparations in Baltimore.
Hang out with Caleb while he celebrates being done with OCS! I'm proud of him!
Wedding!
Home! Our own bed! Our own shower! (Hopefully) New AC! (Tim is adding "playing boardgames with friends!")
Somewhere in there, we'll continue to post pictures and stories because we have a lot of each. Its been a fantastic summer and thanks for coming along the journey with us!
~chels

Victoria Falls Pictures

Tim at the statue of David Livingstone

Me with the sign for Danger Point...about to get SOAKED!

Tim very excited about getting soaked!

Gorgeous veiw!

Completely soaked! I'm about a foot from the edge and a very long drop.

Tim with his makeshift raincoat...a garbage bag. My jacket worked just as well as that silly looking thing :)

Thanks for looking at the pictures!

~chels

Remote Camera

So for years I’ve wanted a remote camera that takes pictures of animals that trip an infrared beam (yes, I know, I’m a nerd). My parents finally got me one for my birthday (Thanks Mom and Dad!) and I was very excited to bring it to Africa and try it out in the bush.

I will admit, my first attempts were a bit frustrating. I set it up in a friend’s backyard where we saw deer…and the next day there was nothing. Three pictures had been taken with nothing in them and that was it. I tried on several other things and all I ended up getting pictures of was myself.

When we started working in Mudumu National Park I kept my eyes open for a good place to put up the camera. I chose a rarely driven trail that had lots of elephant damage and some lion prints in the dirt. The camera was up for three days…and all we got pictures of was ourselves as we drove past for my game drives and one other tour car that passed once. I wasn’t sure the camera was even working but I decided to move it to a nearby waterhole. I put up the camera and left it for two days. When we finally took it down there were over 300 pictures showing on the counter! We had gotten pictures of elephants, warthogs, baboons, impala, wildebeest, and two hyenas! I was SO excited!

I tried again in Bwabwata with mixed results but it was when we got to Chobe that we really started getting some good shots. One day we found a baby elephant that had been killed by a car. It was lying on the side of the big tar road running through that park and there was a nice tree nearby so I put up the camera. The next day when I checked on the camera over 800 photos had been taken! We got hundreds of shots of hyenas coming to feed on the carcass. It was incredible! Most people wouldn’t get to see that sort of thing but because of the camera we did.

Yesterday Chels and I were doing a drive when we saw a leopard in a tree with an impala it had killed. It was so cool! We left the camera at the base of the tree and will pick it up tomorrow. I’m really hoping for some good leopard pics. We’ll see!

~Tim

Caution, this picture is graphic!

MONKEYS!!!

You think monkeys are cute. So did I. Now, not so much. Not at all. One morning Erin kindly offered to go on a morning game drive with Tim so that I could sleep in. I was woken up by a screeching noise. I looked out our tent and it was two monkeys who’d gotten into the trashcan and were swinging it back and forth. They were eating our scraps from last night. I went to the bathroom and scared them off on my way. Then I decided to make oatmeal and tea for breakfast. So I got everything out and went to the sink to fill my pot with water. I came back to 2 monkeys tearing into my box of oatmeal! I yelled at them and they ran off, but not before they stole 1 pack of oatmeal. Then, after I felt like I’d scared them off for a bit, I turned to the car to grab sugar and a spoon for my tea. I was maybe 10 ft from the table and when I turned back around, there were 3 more monkeys ripping into my box of oatmeal and opening my tea! The only thing at hand was Erin’s shampoo, which I threw at them. It ended up on the other side of the fence and they still got away with 2 more packs of my instant oatmeal. Then they proceeded to prance around on the other side of the fence and eat my oatmeal where they knew I was watching them but couldn’t get to them. I was FURIOUS! I finally got to eat my breakfast and while I was sitting, 2 more monkeys tried to run off with the pot with my hot water. I collected a handful of rocks and started throwing them at the monkeys wishing the whole time that I had a bb gun or an airsoft gun to shoot at them. After I’d put everything away, they got up onto the car and looked into the windows trying to figure out how to get the food that was inside.

When we came back from working that day, the monkeys had opened the two containers we use to store dishes and cooking gear (thus the washing before and after cooking). They will eat paper, matches, citronella candles (maybe they have a mosquito problem?), Cliff bars and VIA coffee. They will steal your utensils and then taunt you with them because you’re not as quick as they are. They are pests. They are terrible little creatures. The worst thing about that whole morning was just after the monkeys had stolen my oatmeal, about 20 tourists came INTO our campsite and proceeded to watch, laugh and take pictures of the monkeys, exclaiming how “cuuuute” they were. I sat there in stony silence wishing many leopards on each of the monkeys! (Leopards eat monkeys around here.) Speaking of which, we saw a leopard in a tree yesterday with a dead impala that he’d just killed!!! It was crazy!

~Chels

Cooking Adventures

Cooking is somewhat of an adventure. We have to clean most of our dishes each night (before and after cooking) because its so dusty here and the monkeys get into everything. And I am cooking over 2 small, very unstable cooking stoves. Last night I was trying to do too many things at once and I dumped half of our dinner on the ground. Oops. We have one small table that we use for chopping, dicing, and cooking. It gets very crowded quickly. Also, as soon as the sun goes down, there are suicidal beetles that like the fires of the stoves and fly into them. One night I had 10 dead beetles around my stove! Yuck!

I’ve been experimenting with different recipes here. There have been some great recreations and some not so great. I’ve had to figure out the recipes and then translate them into what is available here and all this from memory. I learned how to cook from my mom who adds a little of this and a bit of that depending on how she’s feeling that day J It drives Tim crazy because he’s one who will write descriptions for each step of the recipe. I’ve tried Vodka Pasta which I’ve made a couple times at home and its amazing (I’ve used Pioneer Woman’s recipe called Pasta ala Vodka and its excellent). Erin bought some vodka and so I decided I’d try the pasta sauce. The grocery store didn’t have heavy cream, so the closest thing to it was buttermilk. And the tomato puree was very different tasting that at home. So, it was a little funky and somewhat chunky thanks to the buttermilk, but everyone was gracious and ate it anyways. One total win for Chels’s cooking was Beef Stroganoff. Usually at home I use those little McCormick packets, but they don’t have those here so I got creative. Again, there was no sour cream so I substituted Greek yoghurt. And I found a seasoning packet for Brown Onion Soup. Those together with the beef, mushrooms and onions tasted EXACTLY how it was supposed to! Amazing! But, the best by far happened mostly by accident. We found some strawberries and decided to have fondue (Tim partook of the strawberries, not the chocolate). So we bought some Cadbury chocolate bars and Lauren put together a double boiler and we had chocolate fondue with strawberries and marshmallows. It was really good but there was a lot left, so I decided to put the pot of chocolate into one of the coolers. When I opened it the next day, it had turned into some of the best fudge I’ve ever tasted!

Here’s what we did:

2 big Cadbury Milk Chocolate bars

about 3 Tbsp Oil

about ½ a cup Milk

One big pot with water. Add 4-5 rocks and set smaller pot in the water. Place contraption onto fire. Stir occasionally and taste often J Enjoy with strawberries or delicacy of your choice, then cover and put over ice for 12 hours. At which time it will be the best fudge/icing/ganache stuff you’ve ever had in Africa. Seriously.

~Chels

Camping at Chobe

Life has settled into a routine of sorts here in Chobe. We’re staying at a campsite for this fancy-shmancy lodge called Chobe Safari Lodge. The campsites are nice and there are bathrooms and showers. Chels has had hot water each night so she’s happy…I (Tim) haven’t been so fortunate. I think it took 6 days before I broke even on the number of nights where my water was actually hot. I’m still holding onto the lead, but barely. We’re on the edge of the Chobe River and so we can hear the hippos and hyenas at night. It also means we get visits from some of the animals (Which I love!). Warthogs walk around camp, wallowing in the mud near the bathrooms. They can also be seen wandering around the main street of Kasane and in the grocery store parking lot. There are also monkeys too, which isn’t nearly as great as it sounds (see below for more on that) and birds that try to raid our food when we’re not looking. One morning Chels even found one in our car because we left the back door open. We’ve also had visits from elephants right on the other side of the small fence lining our camp. One night I woke up at 2:30 to see a HUGE bull elephant eating the branches from a tree whose trunk is right next to our camp table. He was only about 20 feet from our tent and was leaning over the fence to grab branches and pull them to his side. It was incredible! His trunk was going right over Lauren’s tent, but somehow she slept through it all.

 

Us with the camp warthogs, we'd just finished a hot, dusty game drive, so its not the best picture of us but its priceless just the same.

 I (Chels) haven’t minded camping for the most part. The 2 most annoying things are that I only actually feel clean for the 10 minutes when I’m in the shower and getting dressed because after I walk back through the dusty campsites, I’m already dirty again.  And the second thing is when I’m warm and cozy in my tent and I have to pee in the middle of the night. The absolute last thing I want to do is walk to the bathroom in the cold. So I usually hold it until the morning when I’m about to burst and then RUN to the bathroom. Sorry, if that was TMI. J

We’re on the outskirts of a town called Kasane. Its small and its main reason for existence is the National Park and tourism. There are two grocery stores, 2 banks, a small hospital and a police station. And 2 restaurants both of which are pretty good. There’s also a KFC where we can get ice cream cones for about 50 cents (best 50 cents spent in Africa). We’ve been going to the grocery store about every day because with only coolers to keep food good, we can’t buy bulk.

~Chels and Tim

 I (Chels) apologize for my lack of editing skills with my previous posts. Apparently I write but don’t look back over it, so there were duplicates and mistakes. I was also trying to post those as quickly as I possibly could because we’re paying for internet by the hour here. I don’t have much experience in that regard, so I was rushing. But thanks for reading anyways J

A Day in the Life of a Wildlife Researcher

So Chels did a great job earlier of explaining the basics of what we’re doing here but that still doesn’t give a clear idea of what daily life is like so I’ll try to do that here.

We have two basic routines, one in which we do two game drives in one day and one in which we do one and then have a chance for errands while the stores are still open. We typically alternate with a double day and then a single day. Here’s what a double day looks like:

5:30 am: Wake up (may be a little earlier depending on which route we are doing and how long it will take to get to the start point)

5:30-6:00: Quiet time

6:00-6:30: Eat breakfast and get ready for the day

6:30-7:00: Drive to the start point for the morning route

7:00 – noonish: Game drive

Noonish – 1:00 pm: Lunch (Note that the actual time for this varies anywhere from an hour and a half to about 7 minutes depending on how long the morning drive takes and how far away the start point for the afternoon drive is)

1:00 – 6:00: Game drive

6:00-7:00: Drive back to camp and fill up the car with gas if needed

7:00-8:30ish: Cook and eat dinner

8:30-9:30: Prep for bed

9:30ish: Go to sleep and get ready to do it all again the next day

~Tim

Here, I'm taking a bearing to an elephant usuing my compass.

Victoria Falls

We got to see Victoria Falls on Tuesday. It was amazing!!! I don't have any pictures with me but I'll post them as soon as we get better internet. I was blown away by how huge it was and how powerful the water is. As you drive into the little town around the falls you can see the mist rising from the falls from about 2 km away. Super cool! And there's this part at the edge of the Zimbabwe side that's called Danger Point. You can climb on the rocks and get super close to the edge and look down at the Zambezi River. Its such a beautiful sight. And, you get completely SOAKED because the mist comes down like a hard rain. If the falls weren't across a border and an hour away I think I'd go everyday after finishing a hot, dusty game drive. Then, we went to the craft market where we got a bunch of loot. I traded a hair tie for a cool carved hippo soap dish and Tim traded pencils for some figures of elephants. I also traded my old tennis shoes for some really cool giraffe bookends. It was crazy and kind of fun at the same time. We had to haggle and bargain a bunch so it was extremely draining as each person was saying, "Please, come look at my goods. I haven't eaten much today, please help me out." It was hard to separate truth from them trying to get an extra dollar from us tourists. Oh well. It was a very fun day all in all. Pictures will be posted soon.
~chels

Children of Zion Village Orphanage (written July 19th)

God works in crazy ways and I’ve found that the world is very small sometimes! So our teammate Erin had been in the Caprivi area earlier in June working around the biggest town in the area, Katima. While in Katima one day, a guy noticed the large Gator sticker on her car and asked if she was from UF. Turns out he was a Georgia Bulldogs fan (I know, but not everyone can be a Gator), and they got to talking. This guy is named Travis Curry and along with his wife, Lorna, they are directors of an orphanage for children orphaned by AIDS. They are also believers. Erin told me this story, and I immediately wanted to meet them and see their orphanage.  So we bought some really small things like soccer balls, stickers and toy cars for the kids in hope that we would be able to stop by the orphanage. We had an email address for them, but no phone number so I managed to squeak off a quick email to them before we went to Bum Hill where there wasn’t even electricity. Tim finished up his last game drive this morning and we wanted to stop at the orphanage on our way to Chobe (back in Botswana). And this morning when we got to Katima, we still hadn’t heard from them so we were just going to go off of what Erin thought the directions were. But then, we had stopped for lunch and they pulled up right behind us! They gave us directions which was good because it turns out Erin was thinking of a different place.

 It was really, really cool what they’re doing at this orphanage. They have 59 kids, with ages ranging from 10 months to 21 years old. They have a school on the property where the kids are following the PACE curriculum (a Christian curriculum used by homeschoolers in the US where the kids learn at their own pace).  They also have a garden and facilities for animals and chickens. They also are starting a transitional house where they can send their older kids to be trained and prepared to be successful out in the world. As Lorna put it, “We want to raise Godly Namibians to go back into their communities and be salt and light there.”

Travis and Lorna’s story is a testament of how God works in powerful and mysterious ways. They were both successful, he was in software and she’s a Physical Therapist, and they felt lead into ministry. So they heard about the orphanage and sold everything and moved to a place where HIV infection rate is about 45%, the river completely floods their compound each year, and they are far from pretty much everything. And they’d never even been to Africa before they took this assignment! I was very encouraged by their faith and their stories. We brought them You can read more about them and the orphanage at http://tlcinhisservice.blogspot.com/2010/02/children-of-zion-village-message.html

Sorry about no pictures for this post, we were too busy talking with Lorna and Travis to take pictures.

Random Notes from Namibia (written July 15)

We stayed in a really nice campsite in Bwabwata called Bum Hill. I didn’t have time to ask about the name. There were these platforms that were high above the ground to keep our stuff away from the animals and the bathrooms were really cool as well. We were right on the river, so every night we heard the hippos talking to each other. There were also visits from elephants who crashed through our campsite (good thing we were high up!) and lots of monkeys and birds. We stayed at this campsite for 3 nights while Tim was doing his morning drives. While I was with him on Monday morning we saw 2 African Wild Dogs! These are really rare, absolutely beautiful animals! Another name for them is Painted Dogs which is really accurate to how they look.

We also saw a leopard. He was on the road really close to this big field where lots of antelope (impala, lechwe, and waterbuck to be precise) were grazing. We probably interrupted his dinner plans, but we got to watch him for about 20 minutes. He was very regal-looking. Now, I say “he” but I have no idea as to the sex of the leopard.

As Tim said yesterday, we saw African Wild Dogs. Another very appropriate name for these animals is Painted Dogs. They look like they got caught underneath God’s paint pallet and it splattered all over them. It’s a special thing to see because they are pretty rare.

Bwabwata had SO many elephants. The first park really didn’t have many elephants, but on one day in Bwabwata, we saw 160+ elephants! And that was just from the road! There were probably tons that we couldn’t see! They were also fairly aggressive and didn’t really appreciate us trying to drive through their herds. One day we were stopped taking a data point of 3 elephants (who were all very large) and one was very unhappy with us being there. He came up and sniffed at us and trumpeted and stamped his feet for about 15 minutes around our car. At one point he was probably less than 10 feet from me! My heart was racing a bit. And then, we turn around and there was a group of 16 elephants that came from the bush. We got completely surrounded by elephants, some of whom were very unhappy. I’m glad we’re still 3D people and not flat like pancakes from the elephants squishing us J

Angry elephant getting really close to the car! I want you all to YouTube the sound of T-Rex they use in Jurassic Park (I'd post a link, but I have crappy internet). Once you find that, imagine this elephant looking at you with beady, red eyes and making that scary T-Rex roar at you. I almost peed my pants!

Looking like bums at Bum Hill camp.

Our lunch spot each day in Bwabwata. Gorgeous view!

Field Reseach for Dummies

You’re probably all wondering exactly what it is we’re doing out here and I’ll let Tim explain more of the “Why?” questions, but I’ve got the “How?” down. So this is an Field Research for Dummies (I needed it when I started, and I don't think any of you are dummies, btw).

Game Drives: The basis of how Tim collects data on animals. He picks routes (usually along a river’s edge) and we drive them. Ideally, we collect data for each route six times, three in the morning (starting at 7 am) and three in the afternoon (starting at 1 pm).  So, we drive along bumpy, dusty roads at about 20 km/h and each time we see an animal or group of animals, we stop and take some data about the group size, their location, and their group size.

Data Collection:

We get the GPS location of our car using a handheld GPS unit. 

Then, we find the distance from our car to the animal (or middle animal of the group) using a Laser Range Finder.

Lastly, we get a bearing to the animal using a compass.

Often we need also binoculars to count the group size. So far we’ve had three herds of impala that are at least 500+ animals!

We also record notes about habitat and activity of the animals (whether they’re grazing, sleeping, drinking etc).

Usually all of this takes about2 minutes, except when there are multiple groups of animals all around the car. For example, yesterday we had several points where we were counting huge herds of impalas, kudus, warthogs, elephants and giraffes. All in around the same place. Makes for exciting times.

Namibian Passion (written July 10th)

Namushasha (the lodge we’re staying at) has a nice bar and so I’ve been trying out a couple new drinks J This one I made up because I was trying to make a Dirty Shirley (grenadine + vodka + Sprite) but they didn’t have grenadine, so I went with Passion Fruit Rose’s syrup instead and named it Namibian Passion. Here’s the recipie:

1 shot of vodka

1 shot of Rose’s Passion Fruit Syrup

1 can of Schweppes Sparkling Lemonade

Enjoy on a veranda overlooking the papyrus-filled Kwando River at sunset while hippos and birds serenade you. Folks, life doesn’t get much better than this…

The deck overlooking the Kwando River.

~chels

Namushasha means Nice in Namibian (written July 8th)

So I was prepared, at least mentally, to have to camp and sleep on the ground and be uncomfortable and dirty and dusty this whole trip. But so far we’ve only camped 4 days. And those 4 days were really quite nice. We’re in Namibia in the middle of absolutely NOWHERE! The nearest town to speak of is 120 km away. Its so far out in the middle of nowhere that usually groups of tourists get flown in because driving takes so long! But, for being in the middle of the African bush, its absolutely gorgeous! We are staying in a lodge. They have a campground, but UF researchers have been coming here for so long that the managers have a deal where they charge us the same amount for a room that they do to camp! So we have been sleeping in comfy beds with our own bathroom and shower that has hot water past 4pm! God has completely blessed us with this place.

Yesterday, we finally got going on actual research stuff. Which means we drove around in a car for hours getting completely dusty and hot and lost, but we saw animals! Lots of animals. I saw my first elephants, including a baby one that Tim said couldn’t be very old at all! We saw a lot of other animals including lion prints! Tim’s putting up a remote camera close to where we found the lion print so hopefully we’ll get some cool pictures.

We’re here with two other girls, Erin and Lauren. They’re both very nice and its been fun to get to know them on this trip. Erin is in Tim’s department and is working on her PhD, so she’s out here doing research on ground cover and satellite imaging. I’ve been learning a lot about satellites and GPS and imaging in the last couple days. And Lauren is an undergrad who is working on a thesis project. She’s pretty cool too. When we got here, Lauren hadn’t slept in a bed in 7 weeks! She was so excited about the bed and shower and laundry! I can only imagine!

~chels

**The title is completely made up. I have no idea what Namushasha means other than it being the name of this lodge.  And I don’t think that Nambian is even a language, they mostly speak a mix of German, Africaans and English and then there are the tribal languages.**

Pictures of the Lodge

The view from the balcony...

I think its weird sometimes to post pictures of bathrooms, but this one was really cool. The towel bar holder-thingy was a replica of a sable horn. It was pretty cool looking.

The mosquito nets made the whole room feel very safari and African.

Back in Botswana

Hello everyone!

A lot has happened since we last posted. Chels has been preparing some posts so I'll let her tell you most of it but I just wanted to quickly say that we're back in Botswana now, ready to start working in Chobe National Park.

Work in Namibia went well. I worked in two new parks and got some good data. We also got to see a leopard and some African wild dogs, which are rare and very neat to see. Chels has had amazing success at getting to see animals. She's now seen all of the Big 5 (the 5 most dangerous animals to hunt: elephant, buffalo, lion, leopard, and rhino). The lions were yesterday afternoon. We got stuck in the sand watching them and I tried to dig us out on one side of the car while the lions were on the other, but it worked fine and we got out and didn't get eaten so all's well.

Please do be praying for our vehicle situation. We picked up a second four wheel drive car here in Botswana but last night it's radiator started leaking. Now our local contact has taken it to "fix it" and we don't know if he'll give it back. My other two teammates from UF are only here for another 8 days or so but that may mean having to all share one vehicle during that time, which will slow down my work a lot. We'll keep praying and I'm sure it'll work out.

We love you all and miss you! Take care, we'd love to hear from you.

~Tim

Heading to Namibia

So it turns out Wimpy has decent burgers. And free wifi too. We're sitting in one having just finished lunch so I'll put up a quick post.

It may seem like we've been on vacation so far, having fun and not getting much work done. That's all about to change. It has been an easy week and a half so far but tomorrow the work begins. We're leaving before 6am to drive up to the Caprivi Strip of Namibia. From then until we leave it should be pretty much all work (though we hope to go to Victoria Falls one day). I've never been to the parts of the Caprivi that we're going to but I hear that internet is rarely accessible, so there may just be occassional posts. I'm excited to finally be collecting data and for Chels to see what I do and the wildlife I work with.

~Tim

Flying High

Today we took a plane ride over the Okavango Delta! It was beautiful! Maun so far has been the dustiest place I've ever been, so it was a crazy contrast to go from dry desert conditions to seeing this huge amount of land that is covered by water and grass. I saw a bunch of elephants and antelope-type animals. And I saw two big giraffes and a baby giraffe! It was so cool! The whole time I couldn't help but think about all the footage that they have of the Delta in Planet Earth and how I was getting to see it for myself! Awesome! Here's some pictures of the Delta and the plane ride.



First sights of the Delta. Beautiful!

Why Hello, Mr Elephant!

Again, beautiful!

Herd of elephants!

Us in front of the little plane.



Other than that, we've just been hanging out in Maun. Its a lot smaller than Gabs was, but still got the essentials. We camped last night and I slept better in the tent than I did many of the nights in the hotel in Gabs. There was an extra matress thing that was with the gear from last year, so I have that, plus my insulite pad and then I was nice and cozy in my sleeping bag with a blanket that one of the girls gave me. It was all needed because even with the sun up at 8 am this morning it was 7 C this morning! I was incredibly thankful for the warmth of my sleeping bag!

~chels

We're in Maun!

We made it to Maun, on the edge of the Okavango Delta (seen in Planet Earth and other documentaries), and have met up with other grad students from UF. We’re staying at Audi Camp, where I stayed last year. It’s finally time to start camping. Thinking back on it, I’m glad we brought the big tent, I think it will be really nice to have a bit more room. The flight was fine, but getting on it was another cultural experience, reminding us just how different things are here from in the states.

Our flight was scheduled to depart at 7:05am and we arrived at the airport at 6:15. In the US this would already be pushing it, but Gabs has a small airport and ours was the second flight out in the morning so we figured it wouldn’t be too crowded. We joined the line to check in…and waited. There wasn’t even anyone there to check us in. Finally around 6:30 an Air Botswana representative arrived and started checking bags. We didn’t make it to the counter until 6:50. The man did not seem very concerned and started checking us in. We had a bit of a scare when he said our bags were too heavy, by about 14 kg (about 30 lbs). I asked how much it would cost to send them anyways and he talked to another lady working there…and then printed out the tags and sent us on our way, no fee. I was very surprised and grateful! I looked at my watch and it was 6:56, our flight was scheduled for 7:05, remember. I asked if the flight was delayed but he said no. We cleared security at 7:04 and sat down at our gate. Everyone boarded about 7:10 and I watched as our bags were put on the plane. In the states, arriving at your gate one minute before takeoff wouldn’t work, but here it’s just business as usual.

~Tim

Cheetahs!

As Chels said previously, we decided to try out a horseback safari at Mokolodi Game Reserve outside of Gabs. While I’ve done lots of game drives I’ve never tried one from a horse so it sounded fun. We made a reservation, caught a taxi out there, and signed in and paid. Then while we were waiting I head a lady who worked there talking on the phone and sounding agitated. Some of it was in Setswana but I thought I heard something about horses and “they’re here now and they already paid.” It didn’t seem like a good sign but they didn’t say anything to us so we just waited. Then the manager walked up. She explained that just that morning one of their horses had escaped from the corral and bolted into the bush and that they hadn’t been able to find him since (which wasn’t very encouraging for the reliability of riding their horses). She asked if we wanted to do a game drive instead. I wasn’t convinced but then she said she’d throw in a cheetah visit so we agreed.

The game drive was fine. They had a lot of ostrich, which was neat to see, and several other birds. There weren’t too many large mammals, but it was all redeemed when just before we started back we saw three of their five white rhino. There was a female with a baby, which was very cute, being followed by a big male. It was neat! I was really glad Chels got to see them because Mokolodi is the only place in Botswana other than Khama Rhino Sanctuary that has rhino and we probably won’t have time to visit Khama, so this was Chels’ one chance to see them.

The cheetah visit was great too! They have two male cheetahs that were orphaned and raised at Mokolodi. They are kept in a large fenced area and we got to go in. It was neat to suddenly round some bushes and see the cheetahs sitting up ahead in the brush. We got to walk right up to them and scratch their heads. It was awesome being so close! I’ve only ever seen a cheetah in the wild once briefly in Kenya so getting to see these for so long and up so close and personal was really very neat! It was definitely worth the visit.

~Tim

Taxi Rides

Riding around Gaborone in a taxi is an interesting experience. First, there are all kinds of people to meet. We’ve had drivers ranging from a young woman with a master’s degree in social work who had travelled to China and Thailand for business to a young man who is waiting to go back to school for IT work but who dreams of opening a poultry farm and a cattle farm, to an older man who says he came to Gabs in 1985 and looks it. The vehicles themselves are interesting and varied too. We’ve ridden in cars that would look right at home in the US, complete with a back-up-camera and a color screen music player and other cars with seats that always leaned back and wouldn’t lock in position and a rear wheel that constantly scraped against the side of the car. Then there’s the driving conditions. In general Botswana has fairly well laid-out streets and signals and the rules are generally followed…until major traffic hits and then all bets are off. We’ve driven on the margins of the road, along a dirt strip somewhat paralleling the road but obviously not meant to be driven on, and even up the wrong side of the road only to jolt back across and make a right hand turn in front of a waiting line of cars. For those of you who haven’t had experience driving with locals internationally, it’s an eye opener.

~Tim

Research Permits Part II

So the Lord definitely likes to give me opportunities to trust Him. After that post yesterday about finally obtaining the research permits we woke up this morning to walk to the Main Mall and make photocopies. We got ready to go...and couldn't find the permits anywhere. I carried them in my hand all last night as we traveled around and had dinner and headed back to our place, but this morning neither of us could find them, though we tore the room apart. I was freaking out. In the bustle of paying for the taxi back to our place and getting a receipt, I must have forgotten to grab the brown envelope off the floor in the dark. I called the taxi driver but he said he didn't have the permits. I planned to wait a little bit of time in case we remembered and found them and then call Dr. Taolo to see if we could get a new copy of the permit tomorrow.

As Chels and I were having lunch however, the waitress commented that tomorrow is a holiday. At the same moment Chels and I both came to the same realization...that means no one at DWNP will be working tomorrow! We had to get it today or else. We hurried around the mall, trying to find a taxi that could take us to the wildlife office but for once there was none in sight. We started back to our lodge and called a lady who had a taxi company and had given us rides before. She said she could get us in 20 minutes. We made it back to the lodge and searched once more for the permits...nothing! I called Dr. Taolo, feeling very embarrased about losing the permit the day I got it, he was very gracious and said that he understood that these things happened, however there was a problem...the whole area around the DWNP offices had been in a power outage all day so they couldn't make a copy for us. I asked if I could take the copy they had and make my own copy elsewhere. He said that it was against the rules...but then decided that because of the circumstances he would let me do it.

The taxi arrived and we were off! Traffic was terrible, probably because of the holiday tomorrow, but we finally made it. He gave us their hard copy of the permit and we set off for Game City...praying that the power would turn on (it had been out there too). We made it to Game City...and there were lights on and music and TVs in a store we passed. The power was back! We found a shop that makes photocopies and I got 5 copies made, just to be safe. Then it was back to the wildlife office to give back their hard copy. I made it back and noticed that the permit I had been given yesterday had a stamp on it but the one I made copies from didn't. Dr. Taolo said he didn't have the stamp but told me to sit down while he went and got it stamped. I waited and finally he came back, only to tell me that the secretary who has the stamp had gone somewhere and he couldn't find her. He told me to wait and that he'd look again. I waited another while and he finally came back with them stamped! Praise the Lord they are ready and I have copies. I have some in my pocket and some in our little backpack now and plan to put other copies in other places when we return to the lodge.

So all in all, things worked out well but I was definitely nervous and feeling terrible about losing the permits for a while. Thank the Lord that we were able to get them and to have everything together.
~Tim

Research Permits

Praise the Lord! We have the research permit for Chobe National Park and Moremi Game Reserve! Yesterday I met with Dr. Cyril Taolo, Assistant Director of Research and Statistics for the Botswana Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP). While in Botswana we work under DWNP and need their permission to do research. We have our main permit, but needed a supplementary permit to enter the parks, drive off-road, and camp without paying. Last year getting this supplemental permit was a huge ordeal that used up about a week that was supposed to be research time so I was a bit concerned that we didn't have one yet this year and yet were hoping to start next week.

I've met with Dr. Taolo several times on previous trips and always found him helpful. Yesterday was no exception. I gave him a brief report on last year's work and what we planned for this year, he asked some questions and that was that. He said to come back today to pick up the permit. I'll admit that after last year I wasn't really expecting it to be ready so soon. I was pleasantly surprised. I walked in and told the lady in the research office that I was here to pick up a supplementary permit. She asked if I was Tim and said it was in Dr. Taolo's office and to wait a minute. She left and came back about 2 minutes later with our permit! Everything was right with it, all our names and vehicles were included. And it was for both Chobe and Moremi, instead of just Chobe (originally we'd been told there would be problems getting a permit for Moremi but it looks like it worked out).

I know it may seem a little thing to get a goverment document back with the names and information correct but here it's a big deal because it's critical to our work and we've had problems with it in the past. Now we just need to pray that the permits for Namibia come in. We need a similar permit there and so far I've heard nothing, though I've sent out several emails. We'd like to start work there next week so hopefully we hear back on that soon.


Let's see...Chels covered most everything about what's been going on. Yesterday I took Chels for a little cultural experience. We walked around the Main Mall, an outdoor area with loads of vendors selling everything from shoes, to CDs, to carved animals, to dried beans and mopane worms (I was actually really excited, I'd heard about people eating mopane worms- large worms about the diameter of a dime and at least 2 inches long, see the picture below- but had never actually seen them here. I wanted to get some but for some reason Chels vetoed that idea). We went to the local museum and national gallery. They had some nice exhibits explaining the cultural history and development of Botswana going all the way back to the formation of the universe. They also had a number of neat displays of taxidermied wildlife, which I liked. Then I took her to the government buildings to see where the seats of power in the country are. All in all, a nice few hours.

~ Tim

No Words...

are needed to describe this picture.

English is a difficult language sometimes. And I'm actually impressed by how many people know English very well here. On TV, the anchors and game show hosts switch effortlessly between Setswana (the national language) and English. It's very interesting and weird to listen to because you only understand about a third of what they're saying (because half is in a different language and they have thick African accents which makes a bit of the English hard to understand). That's my very accurate mathematical equation. I know, I've got mad skillz. Ha, ha!
Not much else has been going on here in Gabs. There's not too much to do here. I'm sure there's plenty if you live here, but we find ourselves trying to find things to do while we're here. There are two game reserves that we might go to tomorrow, and we're going to watch Transformers 3 later on, but in the mean time, we sit at this adorable cafe that has free wifi and good food.
~chels


For those of you who don't know Africa or the British system I feel like I should point out that erections is most likely what we'd call building construction. Gotta love things that get lost (or in this case added) in translation. ~Tim

What's in a Name?

Our search for a jacket was successful. I found a perfect jacket in the men’s section in the (seemingly) last store in the mall. Yes, mall. I know on the side it says that we’re “roughing it” but that part hasn’t started yet. While we’re here in Gabs, there are actually 3 malls all of which I’ve been to now. They’re actually not bad either. We spent most of the day at the bigger of the malls because we were killing time before Tim’s meeting with a guy who’s in charge of research. We enjoyed a nice lunch and some shopping, then found wifi at a small café. We spent so long catching up on emails and such we had to rush to get to the meeting which was actually cancelled because the guy was in a different meeting. Oh well. We then went to a different mall where Green Lantern was showing. I liked it. When I saw the previews, I was not impressed by all the corniness, but it was actually good. And how can a girl not enjoy a movie with Ryan Reynolds?  And then we had a great dinner at an Indian restaurant. All in all, a great anniversary J We’ve got an interesting track record for anniversaries, they’ve both been spent out of the country, first in London, then in Botswana. We’ll have to figure something out for next summer…maybe back to London for the Summer Olympics?

I think one of the most interesting things I’ve observed so far has been the names of the stores. They’re pretty awesome, so be prepared.

Game – this was an everything store…except games. I couldn’t find any games there. Or  matches, which was what we were looking for.

Juicy Lucy – this was a juice store, similar to Jamba Juice.

Chicken Licken – Maybe because their chicken is finger “licken” good?

Mafia Soul – this was a clothing store. Not quite sure about this one.

Wimpy Burger – doesn’t inspire much confidence in their food, does it?

And lastly, Bimbo’s – no explanation required

We made it!

We're finally in Gaborone (the capital of Botswana)! It took us about 42 hours of travel and 16 hours, 7 minutes (yes I was timing it) in the air, but we're here. We'll be in the capital for almost a week before heading up north to start the research. For now it's preparing, meetings with officials from the Wildlife Department, and spending time together.

The flight out, though long, was fine...at least once we got going. As we were about to taxi out a big storm with lots of lightning hit Atlanta and we sat on the tarmac for 2 hours. Finally we set out...and stopped 500 feet later as we had to wait in a line of other planes that were also delayed by the storm. We eventually set off and must have made good time because we only arrived an hour later than we were supposed to. The movie selection on the flight was very good and we slept a little and watched a lot. The flight was VERY turbulent, however, more than I'd ever experienced. The seatbelt sign was on almost the whole time. The Lord kept us safe, though, and we made it to Johannesburg and the next morning to Gaborone (or Gabs). We found a place to stay in Gabs that is small but seems nice and is near where I've stayed before so I know the area. All in all it's nice...though the light bulb did burn out soon after we moved in and I had to climb up on the bed to change it, and we get mild electric shocks when the shower's running and we touch the handle, but all in all not bad.

~Tim

Ummm...cold! I did not expect it to be this cold here in Africa! I guess I was just thinking Africa is desert and therefore should be hot. Nope. When we landed in Joburg it was 46 F and windy. Coming from a hot and humid Florida, (where our AC was broken!) it was a shock! While we were freezing waiting for a shuttle to the hotel, we realized neither of us had packed my jacket. I do have a sweatshirt, but we're currently in the market for a heavier jacket because I get cold easily. Botswana has definitely been warmer than Joburg was, which is very nice, but its still cold enough to warrant heavy blankets at night. My first impressions of Africa have been great, even through the tired haze of jetlag. The people are very friendly and the countryside is beautiful. Like Tim described, our room is fairly nice. Especially the ceiling! I think I'm going to be doing some redecorating at home!

~chels

Tim replaces the lightbulb in our room. Note the beautiful ceiling decorations!

Where in the world?

Did you guys play "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego"? Growing up I had a computer game version and I would watch the TV game show too. Geography always has interested me and I've been pretty good at it. But I understand everyone isn't as nerdy as me, so I'm going to use pretty pictures to show you where we're headed.

Tomorrow we go on a LONG plane ride to Africa.

Then we're going to Botswana.

And Namibia.

Do you see that thin strip of Namibia smashed in between Botswana, Zambia and Angola? That's called the Caprivi Strip and we'll be going to two national parks there (You can see one in the picture, its called Mudumu National Park).

So now you know. You learn something new everyday.

~chels

*I figured that we're probably going to sign our posts because it could get confusing which one of us is saying "I".



On your mark...get set...PACK!

Welcome to our blog. We wanted to have a space to share our stories of our African summer with you, so here we go. We leave on Friday and will be in Johannesburg Saturday evening and then making our way up to Gaborone, Botswana on Sunday. We're both excited about this trip although currently the fact that we're leaving in less than 2 days is daunting. 

So what exactly are we going to be doing?
Driving (Lord willing!) around to different sites within national parks in Botswana and Namibia, and doing animal counts. Animal counts identify groups of animals, counting them and recording their location and what they are doing. This will let us look at how different types of animals use their habitat and interact with one another.

How long?
About 7 weeks total.

Where will we stay?
In our fabulous REI tent. Its a 2 person tent, so with us + our big backpacks + other junk = a lot of stuff and not much space. We're going to be cozy this summer!

What will we eat?
Grasshoppers, meal worms and grubs. Yum. 
I'm joking (I hope...). 

How you can be praying for us:
-Safe travels. We have lots of planes to catch and cabs and shuttles to get in between. Please pray for safety.
-Logisitics. There are still some questions about vehicles, where to stay, etc.
-Getting along. We generally play well together, but we'll be spending A LOT of time in very close proximity so we'll need to be understanding towards one another.
-Safety (do you notice a theme here?). Once we're out in the bush working we'll be around lots of potentially dangerous animals (and smaller things like parasites that are just as dangerous but much harder to see). Ultimately our safety depends on the Lord, so we'd appreciate all the prayer we can get in this area.
-That we use the time well. We will be working with some of Tim's fellow graduate students so please pray that we can set a good example for them and that the Lord will open opportunities to share as He will.
-For a really fun time. We're so very excited to get to go on this adventure together. While it will be a lot of work, please pray that we'll be able to enjoy ourselves too.

We'll be updating this when we can, though internet can be spotty at times. There will most likely be large amounts of stories all at once and then none for a while.